We’re Hiring: Join Quiet Connections as our Community Engagement & Volunteer Lead and help strengthen volunteer-led Meet Ups and community activity across Cornwall. 

Community Engagement & Volunteer Lead

24 hours per week, £26,780 pro rata. Home-based in Cornwall. 

About Quiet Connections

Quiet Connections is a Cornwall-based Community Interest Company creating welcoming spaces for people who are introverted, highly sensitive, shy or experiencing social anxiety.

We run Weekly Meet Ups across Cornwall and host Pop Up gatherings shaped by our community. Alongside this, we are developing HushFest, a co-created festival of quietness bringing creative workshops, exhibitions and reflective gatherings to towns across the county.

We currently have Weekly Meet Ups in Penzance, Helston, Falmouth, Camborne, Redruth, Truro, Wadebridge and Liskeard. We are growing carefully, with a focus on volunteer confidence, shared ownership and sustainable development rather than expansion for its own sake.

Quiet Connections is a community where quiet people shape the spaces they belong to, not a service delivered to passive recipients. This role plays an important part in that.

The Role

As Community Engagement & Volunteer Lead, you will strengthen and develop volunteer-led activity across Cornwall. Your focus will be nurturing people and supporting confidence. Helping ideas become practical and manageable.

Many of our volunteers are stepping into responsibility for the first time. They care deeply about the community but may feel unsure about leading. Your role is to offer encouragement, clarity and light structure so they feel able to contribute in ways that are authentic, realistic and meaningful.

This is relational leadership rather than traditional management. You will guide and coordinate without controlling. You will hold boundaries with warmth. You will create clarity without rigidity. 

You will also help us maintain quality and consistency as we grow, ensuring our spaces remain calm, inclusive and aligned with our values.

What You’ll Be Doing

Nurturing Volunteer Leadership

• Recruiting and onboarding new volunteers across Cornwall
• Building supportive, trusting relationships
• Helping volunteers shape early ideas into realistic plans
• Facilitating gatherings or group calls to share learning and strengthen connection
• Ensuring volunteers feel informed, valued and connected to the wider mission

Supporting Community Spaces

• Coordinating Weekly Meet Ups and supporting new site development in line with growth plans
• Reviewing and guiding Pop Up ideas within agreed parameters
• Providing simple tools, templates and timelines to support smooth delivery
• Attending community activities at least once per month
• Offering facilitation cover occasionally where needed

Strengthening Shared Purpose

• Helping volunteers see how their local contributions connect to the wider aims of Quiet Connections
• Encouraging collaboration between locations and individuals where helpful
• Supporting community involvement in initiatives such as HushFest
• Offering support and guidance to individuals or groups who wish to explore small-scale fundraising

Community Wellbeing

• Acting as a first point of contact for community concerns
• Navigating relational dynamics and occasional tensions calmly and fairly
• Following safeguarding procedures in collaboration with the Safeguarding Lead
• Contributing to a culture of psychological safety and mutual respect

Working Within a Small CIC

• Collaborating closely with the core team
• Sharing insights from community activity to inform learning and reporting
• Adapting plans in response to capacity and funding

This role carries meaningful autonomy. Within agreed principles and boundaries, you will make day-to-day decisions about volunteer support and activity delivery. Strategic direction is informed by community insight, with overall responsibility held by the core team.

About You

You are likely to bring:

• Strong alignment with our mission and values
• A meaningful understanding of introversion, sensitivity, shyness or social anxiety
• Experience supporting volunteers or community groups
• Confidence facilitating small group conversations in inclusive ways
• The ability to build trust and navigate relational dynamics with care
• Strong organisational skills across multiple locations
• A collaborative mindset suited to a small, evolving organisation
• The ability to travel regularly to Meet Ups in Cornwall.

You may identify as a quieteer yourself. 

You are comfortable holding responsibility without needing hierarchy. You are encouraging without being forceful. You balance compassion with clarity. 

This Role May Not Suit Someone Who

• Has a desire to be work ‘behind-the-scenes’
• Prefers highly structured, target-driven environments
• Is uncomfortable with gradual, community-led growth
• Sees volunteer coordination as primarily administrative

Our work is relational. Influence comes through trust rather than position.

The Impact You’ll Make

• New Meet Ups open successfully and existing ones flourish 
• More community members move from attending to contributing
• Volunteers feel supported and confident in their roles
• Activities increasingly emerge from and are led by the community

You will help create the conditions where quiet people feel able to take up space in ways that feel authentic and shared.

Practical Details

Read the full Job Description here. 

• 24 hours per week
• £26,780 pro rata
• Flexible working
• Home-based working with regular in-person presence across Cornwall
• Occasional evening/weekend availability required in line with event timings.

Apply for this role

If this role feels right for you, we would be glad to hear from you.

Please read the job description. Email your CV and a cover letter sharing a bit about your interest in the role and why it feels like a good fit for you. You’re welcome to include experience from work, volunteering, or lived experience.

Send your application to joinus@quietconnections.co.uk with the job title in the subject line by Sunday 8 March at 11:59pm.

Note: We may close applications early if we receive a high volume of strong applications. 

We are committed to creating an inclusive recruitment process. If there is anything that would help you feel more comfortable applying, please let us know.